Not sure how often you should dust your home? Here’s a simple answer to the hotly debated question of how often to dust.
It sounds like a simple question: “how often should I dust your home?” But ask different people and you’re likely to get very different answers!
In this article, we’ll go through how often to dust the various places in your home, which factors affect dusting frequency, and tips for dusting more effectively.
How Often Should I Dust My Home?
Dusting a home once per month is probably enough for most people. But if you have pets, children, or allergies, then you’ll need to dust more frequently. For allergy sufferers, we recommend dusting the dust magnets in your home at least once per week.
Why Dusting is Important
While a vacuum cleaner will remove a lot of dust, there are several reasons why manual dusting is also essential. These include:
- Make your home look and feel cleaner. Dust clinging to surfaces can make your home feel unclean. It’s hard to get rid of all this dust with a vacuum alone, which is why a dusting cloth is still useful.
- Protect your surfaces. Some of the microscopic particles in dust can cause scratches to delicate surfaces, which is why regularly getting rid of dust is important.
- Reduced allergens in the home. One of the most important reasons for dusting is to reduce the amount of allergens that can be agitated into the air. This is especially important if anyone in your household has allergies.
Dust Doesn’t Just Make Your Home Look Unclean
Dust is a mixture of tiny particles that comes from a variety of sources. It can include skin cells, pet dander, dust mites, flour from cooking, and even bacteria. Letting it build up around your home can increase the chances of respiratory problems or allergic reactions, which is why dusting is such an important job.
Why Not Everyone Needs to Dust the Same Amount
There isn’t one correct answer that applies to how often every home should be dusted. The amount of dusting requires varies depending on factors like:
- Whether you have pets in your household
- Whether someone in the household suffers from allergies
- Whether you have children
- How often you have the windows open to allow for air circulation
Homes with pets or children will need to dust more frequently, as more particles and other debris will be brought into the home due to increased activity. On the other hand, adult-only homes probably won’t need to dust so often.
Similarly, you’ll need to dust more often if someone in the household suffers from allergies. If no-one in the house has issues with allergies, then you can get away with dusting less frequently.
How Often Should You Dust
Now you know the factors that affect how often you should dust, here are our recommendations:
- For households that don’t have allergy sufferers or pets, we recommend giving all your home’s exposed surfaces a thorough dusting once per month. Every 2-3 months, give your home a deep dusting by moving furniture to vacuum and dust behind it.
- For households that don’t have allergy sufferers but do have pets, we recommend a regular dusting once every 2-3 weeks, along with a deep dusting every 2 months.
- For households with someone who suffers from allergies, we recommend weekly dusting of furniture, electronics, and other dust magnets. Skirting boards, door frames, and light shades should be dusted every 2 weeks (or more if required.)
Of course, dusting alone isn’t enough to keep allergens and other particles away. You should vacuum all floors and surfaces at least once per week, although for carpets we recommend twice weekly vacuuming.
If you have a bagless vacuum cleaner, make sure that you empty it into an outdoor bin. Bagless vacuums allow clouds of dust to escape back into the home, leading to more dust around the house!
Note: If you suffer from a dust allergy, make sure you discuss your home’s cleaning schedule with a medical professional. They’ll be able to advise you on how best to minimise the effects of your allergy.
Frequently Asked Questions
How Can I Reduce the Amount of Dust in My Home?
There are many ways to reduce the amount of dust in your home. Doing so can increase air quality and mean you need to dust less frequently.
We’ve written an in-depth guide to reducing dust, but some of the most important tips include cleaning your bedding often, vacuuming regularly, and beating rugs outside to remove trapped dust.
Tip: If you suffer from allergies, make sure you use a bagged vacuum cleaner with a high-quality filtration system (HEPA filters are often the best choice.) This will minimise the amount of dust that escapes back into the home through both the exhaust air and when emptying the vacuum.
Is There Any Reason to Dust Daily?
There’s probably no reason to dust daily, unless you have a specific reason for doing so. While many people don’t dust enough, daily is probably overkill!
Should You Dust Before or After Vacuuming?
We recommend dusting before you vacuum. When you dust, some of the particles are stirred up into the air, before settling on various surfaces. Dusting first allows you to capture these particles when following up with your vacuum.
Summary
Dusting is an important chore for keeping your home clean and healthy. Dust isn’t just unsightly – it can scratch surfaces, trigger allergies, and even lead to respiratory issues.
How often you need to dust depends on your household and whether anyone suffers from allergies. Non-allergy sufferers will need to dust less often than those with allergies, although you may still want to dust more frequently to keep your home looking clean.
Do you have any questions about how often you should dust a home? Please use the comments form to get in touch.